Tax defaulters, not terrorists!

India’s security is in the hands of a loony crowd

Sriprakash Jaiswal, India’s minister of state for home affairs, has announced that contrary to popular belief, it was not jihadi terrorists, but tax-defaulters that were behind the attack on the income tax building in Srinagar yesterday. (linkthanks Jagadish)

India must have some very motivated tax-defaulters, who are willing to strap explosives on themselves and blow themselves up in order to avoid having to paying taxes. And they killed seven people in the process.

The (Income Tax) building is just a few minutes away from a Border Security Force (BSF) camp. It’s being doubted as to why the BSF camp was left untouched by the attack because as a normal tendency, and the past experiences also show, defence personnel or their belongings in Jammu and Kashmir are more prone to militant attacks. [Y!]

A weakened jihadi corps could well have changed its tactics — instead of hard targets like well-defended BSF camps, they may have decided to go after the low-hanging fruit. To all but exonerate the jihadis even before the fire has been completely put out is irresponsible and misleading.

The Manmohan Singh government’s approach to national security has previously ranged from the whimsical to the cynical. Thanks to Jaiswal, it is beginning to look positively comical.